'Big Switch On' Success

FESTIVE ATMOSPHERE AT THE BIG SWITCH ON

The Village was crowded as Santa arrived at the Wharf by boat and made his way to his Grotto – many thanks to the Audlem Lass team for transporting him.

The Switch On this year was sponsored by Janet Maughan and her family from Overwater Marina and the Big Tree was kindly donated by Angela and Graham Allinson of Hatherton Lodge.

The children from St James School sang a delightful selection of Christmas songs & the shops were crowded as people did some Christmas shopping.

The evening was a great success thanks to all the hard work carried out by the ADAS Committee and the volunteers who helped with the many tasks over the previous few weeks:

• The 62 small trees were collected by Andy McClintock, Ella McClintock and Paul Couchman from Crewe Road Nurseries and were dressed by volunteers – thanks to Linden Huckle for the use of his Barns
• On Saturday 24th November 19 volunteers distributed the trees around the Village. Phil Baker ensured the required cabling was in place.
• The Big tree was cut down on 24th November and transported to the village by the Furber family on their tractor and lifted into place by Jonathan Gleave using his Manitou.
• The tree was dressed by Pete Hollinshead and Phil Baker, both finishing late in the evening. The dressing of the tree was made possible by the loan of a 'cherry picker' from Voltcom. This was also used to dress the tree by Woore Road bridge – thanks to the Plume family for their donation towards the cost of these lights.
• The Old Priest House Café and the Lord Combermere pub provided refreshments during all this work for the volunteers.
• Santa's Grotto was dressed by Sam Burdon of Flower Divas and volunteers – a big thank you to Martin and Chrissie for allowing their garage to be used as the Grotto.
• As usual Santa and his elves were much appreciated by the children of the Village.
• PET Tool hire kindly loaned the barriers to ensure the safety of pedestrians

The ADAS Committee have applied to Audlem Parish Council for a grant towards the cost of the Big Switch On to enable some of the lights to be replaced and to cover the cost of the trees in future years.

If you would like to sponsor one of the small trees, please take your donation to Flower Divas.

Thank you again again to everyone who helped with this very successful Village event

The next ADAS event will be Carol Singing in the Square with Crewe Brass on Friday 21st December at 7.30pm – do come
along and join in the fun.

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